Dyvour, Dyvour's Habit

DYVOUR - Scotch Law. A bankrupt.

DYVOUR'S HABIT - Scotch Law. A habit which debtors, who are set free on a cessio bonorum, are obliged to wear unless it be proved that the bankruptcy proceeds from misfortune. Bankrupts, if they have been dealers in an illicit trade, are condemned to submit to the habit even where no suspicion of fraud lies against them. This practice was bottomed on that of the Roman civil law, which is better fitted to excite laughter than compassion.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.